Effect of an Automated Paging System on Response to Critical Laboratory Values
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00469924 |
Recruitment Status
:
Completed
First Posted
: May 7, 2007
Last Update Posted
: May 17, 2016
|
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Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
---|---|---|
Critical Laboratory Values Drug Laboratory Interactions Drug Drug Interactions | Procedure: Real Time Clinical Alerting | Not Applicable |
We will evaluate the effect of real time clinical alerting on the time to response and the quality of the response to critical laboratory values. We define time to response as the time from acceptance of the laboratory value in the laboratory information system to the time that a physician's order is written in response to the laboratory value. In the absence of a timed physician order, we use the time of administration of treatment to estimate the time of response. We define the quality of response as whether the treatment was consistent with existing hospital policies and expert guidelines.
This will be a prospective interrupted time series study.
The setting is secondary-tertiary care inpatient general medicine units at academic teaching hospitals (Sunnybrook and UHN). The physician participants are staff physicians and medical residents in the Division of General Internal Medicine. The patient participants are general internal medicine inpatients with critical laboratory values. The intervention is an automated real time clinical alerting system that includes evidence based decision support and patient specific information about critical laboratory abnormalities. There are two primary outcome measures: (1) time to response, defined as the time from the critical laboratory abnormality to time of resolution of the critical laboratory abnormality, and (2) quality of response, defined as whether the response was concordant with existing evidence based protocols of care. Secondary outcome measures will be: length of stay, mortality, time to resolution of the abnormality, and frequency of recurrence of the abnormality. Other process measures will be: quality of response, time to resolution, and proportion resolved within 24 hours. Time to response is defined as time from the identification of the critical value in the laboratory to time of a physician order in response to the abnormality.
There are two primary outcome measures: (1) time to response, defined as the time from the critical laboratory abnormality to time of a physian order in response to the critical laboratory abnormality, and (2) quality of response, defined as whether the response was concordant with existing evidence based protocols of care. Secondary outcome measures will be: length of stay, mortality, time to resolution and frequency of recurrence. Time to resolution is the time from the initial laboratory abnormality to the time that the abnormality resolves. Frequency of recurrence is the proportion of patients who develop a second episode of the same critical abnormality after resolution.
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 271 participants |
Allocation: | Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Parallel Assignment |
Masking: | Single (Outcomes Assessor) |
Official Title: | Effect of an Automated Paging System on Response to Critical Laboratory Values |
Study Start Date : | February 2006 |
Actual Primary Completion Date : | June 2008 |
Actual Study Completion Date : | September 2008 |

Arm | Intervention/treatment |
---|---|
Experimental: Alerting system ON
Alerting system is ON
|
Procedure: Real Time Clinical Alerting |
No Intervention: Alerting system OFF
Alerting system is OFF
|
- (1) time to response, defined as the time to a physician order and (2) quality of response, defined as whether the response was concordant with existing evidence based protocols of care. [ Time Frame: During acute care hospitalization ]
- Secondary outcome measures will be: length of stay, mortality, time to resolution and frequency of recurrence. [ Time Frame: During acute care hospitalization ]

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Ages Eligible for Study: | Child, Adult, Senior |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients with critical laboratory values or hazardous drug-lab or drug-drug conditions, admitted to inpatient general medicine units
Exclusion Criteria:
- Values or conditions where no clinical action can be taken

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00469924
Canada, Ontario | |
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | |
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4N 3M5 |
Principal Investigator: | Edward E Etchells, MD MSc | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre |
Responsible Party: | Dr. Edward Etchells, Associate Professor, Staff Physician, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT00469924 History of Changes |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
Etchells1 |
First Posted: | May 7, 2007 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | May 17, 2016 |
Last Verified: | May 2016 |
Keywords provided by Dr. Edward Etchells, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre:
Informatics Clinical Laboratory Information Systems Hospital Communication Systems |
Laboratory Techniques and Procedures Point-of-Care Systems Therapy, Computer-Assisted |
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Caffeine Central Nervous System Stimulants Physiological Effects of Drugs Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors Enzyme Inhibitors |
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action Purinergic P1 Receptor Antagonists Purinergic Antagonists Purinergic Agents Neurotransmitter Agents |